Two wheels good to go in Mexico

No need to worry about bus schedules or car rentals if you bring your bike

One of the advantages of cycling in Mexico is that you can visit off-the-beaten-path destinations where it is hard to find a cab or bus to take you.

Photograph by: Daryl Richel
, For Canwest News Service

The smiling airline clerk at the Puerto Vallarta Airport check-in counter looks at the eight-foot long tandem bicycle and raises her eyebrows. My wife, Charlotte, and I have just finished a short tandem trip in the region, and we are bringing our behemoth of a bike home.

"How much did you pay in extra baggage fees to fly with that from Edmonton to Puerto Vallarta?" she asks, as she examines our unusual piece of "luggage."

Nada. Nothing. We didn't pay a peso. The clerk does a bit of checking and discovers to her surprise that indeed bikes fly free on Skyservice flights. It might cost $5 for a pillow in the aircraft's cabin, but our 20-kilogram bike, stowed away in the cargo hold next to suitcases bulging with sunscreen and bathing suits, doesn't cost us a thing.

Charlotte and I are on our way home from my third cycling trip to Mexico in two years. On past trips we cycled around Isla Mujeres, a sand spit of an island near Cancun, and I did a solo trip from Cancun down the Mayan Rivera to Tulum. This Puerto Vallarta trip was the first time we would ride the tandem straight from the airport to our final destination.

We're not hard-core, must-have-all-the-latest-gear cyclists, but we are regular bike commuters. So it just made sense to take our transportation with us to Mexico. All the better to skip expensive taxis and often-confusing bus schedules.

In short, riding a bike in Mexico is a blast!

We arrive at the Puerto Vallarta Airport in the middle of the afternoon after a very early departure from Edmonton. The 6 a.m. departure means little sleep the night before, but it does give us reason to count on enough daylight in Mexico to reach our destination. We plan to ride 40 kilometres north to Sayulita, a coastal town on the other side of the mountains from the airport.

As the aircraft comes in for a landing, Charlotte and I clearly see the serpentine road we will soon be peddling on.

At the airport, we awkwardly pull the tandem from the luggage carousel to a quiet corner of the airport to get the bike ready for the ride. Before leaving Edmonton we had wrapped the bike in a long heavy plastic bag for protection. We stow the bike condom on our rear rack, pump up the tires, make a costume change in the airport bathroom into cycling clothes and we're ready to ride to Sayulita.

Other than the little drawing in our guidebook, we don't have a proper map. We don't really need one, however, since Highway 200 goes pretty much straight from the PV Airport to Sayulita. "Keep the Pacific to your left and we'll be fine," Charlotte says as we head out.

The route from the airport to the foot of the mountains is clogged with traffic, much of it trying to drive on the wide shoulder with us. One of the wonders of bike commuting at home is that you never get caught in traffic, since there's always a couple of feet on the shoulder to slowly squeeze past the gridlock. Not here. In front of the Home Depot, the traffic is so dense we are actually stuck for a while. Eventually, traffic thins out, giving us lots of room on the wide shoulder.

Not a lot to marvel at for the first 25 kilometres, but suddenly, as if we pedalled from one world into another, we are surrounded by thick towering jungle and a long hill in front of us. At the same time, the marked shoulder disappears and four lanes of traffic narrow to two. The climb continues for 45 minutes.

On the flat highway out of the airport we were averaging 26 km/h; now we are doing about nine. The traffic is heavy, but moving slowly up the mountain. We have to get to Sayulita before dark because riding on a narrow highway at night on a mountain road is not a good idea. We now only have about an hour before sunset.

Finally, we round a curve and start the fast descent to Sayulita. The downhill is nail-biting since the traffic is moving faster, and the potholes and steep embankment are more menacing at 45 km/h than they were at nine km/h. We cannot afford to slow down too much, since it is getting dark.

Charlotte is really afraid since she is on the back of the bike, hoping I can handle the speed, traffic and unpredictable road. As the stoker on a tandem, she can't brake or steer; going downhill, the stoker just hangs on tight and sometimes even closes her eyes.

We arrive in Sayulita with time to spare, and find our hotel at the top of yet another hill.

For the next seven days we go on relaxing little excursions from Sayulita by bike.

On our way back to the Puerto Vallarta Airport we spend the day on a slightly longer and less-travelled route through Punta Mita. We take a long break on the vast and almost empty beach at Litibu, riding on the firm packed golden sand, chasing the waves as they move back and forth just missing our wheels.

We're just starting our ride out of Punta Mita when a Mexican hotel worker lording over his hotel parking lot sees our long tandem and smiles. "We have free limousine parking," he calls to us as we wave goodbye.

Our first cycling trip with the tandem to Mexico was less adventurous than the Puerto Vallarta trip, but just as much fun. On first blush, Isla Mujeres may not seem like a likely cycling destination, but there are few vehicles, many of them golf carts used by tourists for zipping about. The island is dead flat.

Yes, it's only nine kilometres long and about a kilometre at its widest, but our hotel is on the opposite end of the island where the main town is and the island doesn't have good bus service. Every day we use the tandem as our commuting vehicle to go grocery shopping, visit other beaches or dine at out-of-the-way restaurants. It takes about 30 minutes to ride from one end of the island to the other, and in seven days on the island we manage to ride almost 100 kilometres.

For cycle-touring aficionados, our tandem trips on Isla Mujeres and Puerto Vallarta may seem rather pedestrian, but my solo one-week cycling trip from Cancun to Tulum is worthy of my earning a few cycle-touring stripes.

This time I pack a tent and ride much further than my trips in Mexico with Charlotte. The costal highway between Cancun and Tulum is great for cycling, mostly because the highway has a very wide shoulder and is seldom used by Mexican drivers. I feel like it's all mine.

On the way to Tulum I tent overnight on the grounds of a scruffy hotel in Playa Del Carmen. The next day on my way to Tulum I discover Cenote Tankah -- a fresh water sinkhole -- and have the most refreshing swim of my life.

Most tourists visit big privately run cenotes, but Tankah is modest, free and there's no one else around. You have to have a bike or a car to get here.

Just down the highway from Tankah, I find a campsite for $9 per night in the shade of a huge tree at a campground/cabana operation on the Tulum beach called Mar Caribe. Tulum's beach area is a 10-km strip of small hotels and restaurants, but the town and all other services are about 15 km from the campground.

Without a bike, a visit to town would mean trying to find a cab, or a bus (they are rare), or walking. On my bike, I zip into the centre of town in 20 minutes. Part of the road has a gravel bike path and Tulum even has dedicated bikeways in town.

On my last day in Tulum, I crawl out of my sleeping sheet and pack up my tent at dawn to start the 110-km ride straight to the Cancun Airport. It rains lightly for most of the day, so when I arrive at the airport around 4 p.m., I'm soaked. Before I check in, I slip into the bathroom, open my waterproof bike pannier and change into dry clothes before wrapping the bike in its big plastic bag. Me, my bike and my dry socks are ready to fly home.

- - -

IF YOU TAKE YOUR BIKE

- In order to take a bike on a flight, you have to let the air out of the tires, turn the handlebars in and -- sometimes -- take the pedals off and put the bike in either a box (a huge hassle) or in a big plastic bag.

- The plastic bag option is much easier since you don't have to find another box on the return trip or a place to store your original box. A big plastic bag can be rolled up and easily reused on the return trip.

- During the winter the main carriers from Canada to Mexico are WestJet, Air Transat and Skyservice. Bikes ride free on Air Transat and Skyservice flights, while WestJet allows one bike per passenger but may charge for excess weight. Go to the websites of each carrier for details.

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